Condemning the hike in fuel prices, edible oil, soaring prices of essential commodities, subsidy cut on kerosene and stating that the Union Budget is nothing but a blueprint for privatisation, members of Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) staged a demonstration in Dharwad on Thursday.
Staging the demonstration and raising slogans against the Union government, the protestors burnt the Union government in an effigy saying that the BJP-led NDA government is on a privatisation spree in the garb of Atma Nirbhar Bharat.
Addressing presspersons, district committee member of SUCI(C) Gangadhar Baidger said that at a time when the common people of the country are devastated by the economic crisis induced by an unscientific lockdown and post-lockdown restrictions, instead of mitigating their sufferings, the Union government is delivering blows one after the other.
“The whole country was looking at the Budget with hope that it will get some relief. However, the Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is full of self-praise, doubtful data and fake claims about fiscal revival and development,” he said.
Mr. Gangadhar said that in the garb of Atma Nirbhar Bharat, the Union government has laid out the blue print for privatisation of education, health, banking, insurance and other service sectors. He said that while claims are being made about increased allocations in health, education and infrastructure, they are not supported by data.
He said that although 150 farmers have breathed their last during the more than two-month-old agitation on the borders of New Delhi, the ruling disposition is least bothered about their plight and there is nothing in the budget to prove that the government is sympathetic towards farm issues. “In reality, the claim about Atma Nirbhar Bharat is nothing but corporate dependent Bharat as it has been designed as per the wishes of the corporate sector,” he said.
District committee members of SUCI(C) Laxman Jadagannavar, Mahdulata Goudar, Bhavanishankar, Bhuvana, Deepa, Sharanu Gonawar, Ramesh Hosamani and others took part in the agitation. A number of residents too joined the protest.
